THIS WEEKEND
Swish. Spike Lee traded in his courtside seats for a chance to play on
the court and led his team to a first place finish at the box office with
He Got Game.
The Denzel Washington hoops drama scored $7.6M over the weekend and gave
its distributor Buena Vista its largest opening of the year and first number
one movie since last November's Flubber.
He Got Game,
also starring NBA star Ray Allen, opened in 1,319 theaters which was the
widest release for a Spike Lee film to date, but still trails the amount
of playdates that an average new wide release would get. Still, it was
able to post a slam-dunk average of $5,770 per arena.

It was the second-biggest
opening weekend for the goateed director as He
Got Game's debut was unable to top the
opening of his last collaboration with Denzel Washington, 1992's Malcolm
X, which marched into theaters with $9.9M
in 1,124 locations. For Washington, He
Got Game's Friday-to-Sunday performance
was about even with his last film's opening as Fallen
collected $9.1M over a four-day holiday weekend in January. It was also
the Academy Award-winning actor's first number one movie in three years
(1995's Crimson Tide
was his last) and the first ever box office crown for Spike Lee. Fans of
Lee, Denzel Washington, and basketball all contributed to the solid launch
of He Got Game as
it capitalized on playoff fever caused by the NBA's post-season competition.
For a review of He Got Game visit
Chief's Movie Review Page.

Remaining in second
place was City of Angels with
$6.6M in its fourth date with moviegoers. The leggy romantic drama starring
Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage slid just 27% and pushed its total to a hefty
$55.4M. Dropping two notches to third was last weekend's number one picture
The Big Hit which
grossed $5.8M. Its 47% fall was steep but not uncommon for an action film.
Starring Mark Wahlberg, minus any prosthetic body parts, The
Big Hit has now taken in $19.4M in ten
days and looks capable of reaching $30-35M by the end of its run.

Opening in fourth with
just $5M was the classic drama from Sony Les
Misérables. Playing in 1,477 theaters,
it averaged a decent $3,393 per site for the second-best per-theater average
in the top ten, behind He Got Game.
Les Misérables stars
Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, and Hollywood's latest bride Uma Thurman who
tied the knot with Ethan Hawke on Friday. The debut performance was not
very encouraging and its chances for long-term success are slim.

Universal's woes continued
with the debut of Black Dog at
fifth with $4.8M. The Patrick Swayze truck driving pic turned out to be
a lemon as it averaged a poor $2,375 in 2,025 theaters. The film counted
on its star to deliver a strong opening but audiences were clearly not
interested. Swayze's absense from the big screen during the last few years
seems to have hurt his drawing power. His last films were 1995's To
Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar which
opened with $9M and Three Wishes
which managed only $2.6M its opening weekend.

For the first time,
the mighty Titanic
was nowhere to be found in the waters of the top five. Docked just below
in sixth with a take of $4M, the romantic epic raised its massive total
domestic gross to $565.7M. Dipping just 19% in its 20th weekend, the Oscar-winning
motion picture is still showing signs of longevity as its chances of reaching
$600M remain possible. In fact, it could sail back into the top five next
weekend. However, the James Cameron boat picture did have the second-worst
per-theater average in the top ten with $1,508 per lifeboat.

As far as Titanic's
theatrical future goes, rumors have been floating around about Paramount
taking the blockbuster out of theaters and rereleasing it in the fall with
added footage. Blaise Noto, Senior Vice President at Paramount Pictures,
responded by stating that the film will play through the coming months
like any other movie and that there are no plans for a theatrical rerelease.
Noto also said that no home video release date has been set.

Collecting $3.7M was
the DreamWorks parrot movie Paulie
which eased by a scant 14% for the smallest dropoff in the top ten. The
kidpic is taking advantage of a marketplace lacking any other childrens
movie. Gwenyth Paltrow's latest romantic comedy Sliding
Doors, which performed very well in limited
release last weekend, expanded its run to 495 theaters and collected $1.6M.
Its $3,314 average was respectable but any future expansion is not likely
to boost the movie's performance significantly. Falling out of the top
ten were The Odd Couple 2
currently at $16.2M, The Players Club
at $19.4M, and Mercury Rising
now up to $29.8M. Also slipping was the reissue of Scream
2 which tumbled 59% from last weekend
bringing the slasher film's total gross to $99.3M as it continued to creep
up on the elusive $100M mark which it should reach by week's end.

A handful of new pictures
opened in the arthouse circuit. Sony Classics' Wilde,
directed by Brian Gilbert, grossed $69,424 in seven locations for an impressive
$9,918 average. Dancer Texas, Pop. 81,
from Sony Pictures, earned $87,983 in 26 theaters for a $3,384 average.
Fox Searchlight's Shooting Fish
earned $2,445 per house as it took in $56,240 in 23. The Brendan Fraser
film Still Breathing
needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as it gasped to $86,659 in 67 sites
for a weak $1,293 average.

Compared to my projections,
He Got Game
fell short of my $10M forecast. Les Misérables
and Black Dog
grossed a bit less than my predictions of $7M and $6M respectively.

Overall, business at
the nation's theaters was slow again as the last two weekends have posted
the weakest results of the year so far. In fact, this weekend saw the lowest
gross for the number one movie in eight months. The top ten films grossed
$45.6M which was down 22% from last year when Breakdown
and Austin Powers
opened, but was up 31% from 1996 when The
Craftopened at the top with $6.7M. Be
sure to check in again on Thursday as the summer starts off with
a bang with the launch of Deep Impact.

This column is updated three times each week
: Thursday (upcoming weekend's summary),
Sunday (post-weekend analysis with
estimates), and Monday night (actuals).
Source : Variety, EDI. Opinions expressed in this column are those solely
of the author.